Chapter 13: Celebration
Success. In a restaurant at the city's Westside Mall, Alex, Jane, and Lisa were enjoying a celebratory meal. There was beef, tripe, sausages, and beef rolls... what would a hot pot be without beef?
"Incredible, Alex! The gaming world is going crazy and players are enthusiastically criticizing it!" Lisa, who already knew Jane, looked at the news on her phone with excitement.
"Lisa, please don't call me Master. I'm not one yet. Just call me by my name." Alex waved his hand.
Despite the exaggeration, Alex knew that the supposed sensation was more like a small community of game developers. And as for the gaming world in general? At most, it caused a stir in the indie scene, and it was relatively small. Alex was very clear about this.
"I think I shouldn't have said 50,000 sales then," Jane said beside him, but with a smile.
Hearing this, Alex put down his chopsticks and smiled at Jane, saying, "It can't be helped. It was your decision."
"Hey, I was thinking of inviting you to my company, Alex. It seems I overthought it!" Lisa said, somewhat frustrated.
"Please don't cause trouble for my partner! Your game sales are going from bad to worse!" Jane retorted sharply.
"Those three games of mine failed, but there were reasons. I was responsible for the text and story structure. I hired others to take care of everything else. And the players' response to the story and text has been positive!" Lisa protested.
"By the way, Alex, could you help me figure out what went wrong with those three games our company developed?" Lisa pleaded, looking at Alex.
"Positioning and the disproportionate system." Alex searched on his phone and, after a quick look at some online videos, he understood.
"Hmm..." Lisa was a little confused.
"In short, Lisa, you're trying to add a little bit of everything to your game. But Lisa, you're making a low-budget indie game, not an AAA title. Even for an AAA game, many of the system configurations are basically for enrichment, not for the main course," Alex told Lisa.
Lisa, hearing Alex's words, suddenly realized; she understood a little, but not entirely. Although she was still a bit confused, Lisa didn't feel comfortable asking more questions at the table, so she changed the subject.
"By the way, what do you plan to do now, Alex?"
"Now I plan to found my own small video game company," Alex said with a smile, which was no secret.
"Start your own company?" Lisa was a little surprised.
"Yes," Alex nodded; it was already in motion.
Sitting in her seat, Lisa thought for a moment and then made a decision. "Well, Alex, what do you think? Can I come to your company and develop games together?"
She still felt passionate about creating video games, but three consecutive failed projects had discouraged her a bit. But now she understands. 'Is it a problem that I can't be a game designer, that I can't create successful games? No, not really! It's just that I haven't found the secret to success yet. Finding someone to lean on is the key to success!'.
She had thoroughly researched the game Mirror before coming here. She came to the conclusion that its success was no coincidence. She had just heard Alex's comments about her three games, and although she understood a little, she didn't quite grasp them.
But she was sure of one thing: this debut game developer, as her best friend had described him, had the potential to become a master! Some game designers can develop a high-quality game on a whim, only to fall into oblivion. But others, on the other hand, have a clear vision of the game they want to create. Alex, before her, was clearly one of those people. The failure of three consecutive games had given Lisa a better understanding of herself.
Hearing Lisa's words, Alex, sitting in his seat, fell into deep thought. He took a quick look at the three games Lisa had mentioned. As she had said, the story was undoubtedly the highlight. The game's negative reviews were mainly due to the gameplay, while the positive ones were mainly due to the story.
And this doesn't apply only to one game, but to all three. Clearly, this is the work of the scriptwriting team. If in the future he were to create his own games, he certainly couldn't do everything himself. He could handle the main plots and other storylines in some games, but what about the complete story? Even with a system, it's unrealistic to rely solely on it.
Let's consider a game like Red Dead Redemption 2, for example, which had over 2000 pages of text just for the main story. If you add up the entire game, a stack of scripts the size of an A4 sheet would reach 2.4 meters high. He could handle a game like Mirror, but with larger and more complex games in the future, it's clear he won't be able to handle everything.
"Of course, Lisa, if you're serious, we can talk after I reactivate the company," Alex told Lisa.
"No problem. I'll await your news, Alex!" Lisa replied.
"Okay, okay, if you don't eat it soon, I'll eat all the meat," Jane said beside him.
"Hey, Jane, do you want to join us? With our strength, we can certainly do something big!" Lisa said with a smile, looking at Jane beside her.
She took the strawberry milk from the table and took a sip. Jane looked at Lisa without saying anything.
"But I don't know how popular Mirror will be. Will monthly sales exceed a million?" Lisa guessed beside him.
"There's hope if we give it half price, but it's practically impossible to sell more," Alex said with a smile.
He still understands it better. After all, it's an 18+ game and the restrictions are too strict.
A group of people ate and drank at the shop. Around nine, Alex sent them to their respective communities and then took a taxi home.
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